1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless control apparatus, a network system, a control method, and a program providing a service to a wireless device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wireless access points serving to connect wireless local networks to wired local networks have become commercially available in recent years.
Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP), which is a means of performing authentication of network users to maintain security when the users access servers or the like on networks from wireless devices and permits only a wireless device of a user who has passed the authentication to connect to the networks, has been introduced. Security standards, such as WiFi Protected Access (WPA) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11i, have also been used.
A technique for controlling networks in units of terminals by using an address set in a network management apparatus by employing an IC card to provide a network service to each terminal is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003-041085, corresponding to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-069573.
A technique for establishing network connection in units of terminals by dynamically assigning a virtual LAN identifier (VID) to be used in virtual LAN (VLAN) to each of the terminals on the basis of authentication information for each login user on networks is proposed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-249947.
A technique for maintaining network security by performing user authentication by remotely using an authentication protocol of a wireless access point when a user participates in a network from a wireless terminal is described in, for example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002-157007, corresponding to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-314549.
However, the aforementioned conventional techniques still have some disadvantages. In particular, an administrator is required to preset addresses of devices permitted to connect to a network. Therefore, every time a device permitted to connect to the network is added or changed, the administrator must change the settings.
For a system in which user authentication is performed using an authentication server on a network, the authentication performed by the authentication server is necessary. In a wireless LAN system, both a Home-SOHO mode (a mode that does not use the authentication server) and an Enterprise mode (a mode that uses the authentication server), which are defined by the WPA or IEEE 802.11i standard, may be present. Since the system requiring the authentication performed by the authentication server cannot allow a device operating in the Home-SOHO mode to connect to the network, it is impossible to provide a service to the device that attempts to connect in the Home-SOHO mode.